September 20, 2015 7:09pm EDTSeptember 20, 2015 5:38pm EDTIt was a mistake to hand Johnny Manziel a start last year, while he was still acting like Johnny Football. Now that he's grown up and won a game, the Browns should reward him by making him the starter.Johnny Manziel

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That’s only one reason the Browns should skip over the Josh McCown, seat-warming portion of their season, and give Manziel the job for good. It’s the best reason, however, even better than Sunday’s final score and Manziel’s stat line.

Numbers can’t measure how much more of a professional quarterback Manziel looks like now. He looked more like one last week when he replaced McCown against the Jets. He built on it against the Titans, came out of the box with a touchdown pass on the game's second play, and led the Browns to an impressive 28-14 win.

Saying he led them is not an exaggeration. He played smart, made the right throws and right decisions, let his running game and defense help him, and was prepared to do the job asked of him.

Manziel did none of those things in his first NFL start late last season. He was still playing his “Johnny Football” role then. Mentally and psychologically, he was still in college, if not worse.

In his defense, though, the Browns, Mike Pettine and Ray Farmer had no business letting him start a game then — they knew he wasn’t ready, and their only reason for doing it was that he wasn’t Brian Hoyer.

Now, there’s a better reason to start him than, “He’s not Josh McCown.” Eventually, when McCown is cleared to return from his concussion, the Browns should recognize that his ceiling is what it is, and that Manziel’s is higher.

More important, they should reward Manziel for being ready, for paying his dues, for keeping his offseason promises, and for grasping the concept of being a pro.

By doing that, the Browns can avoid compounding last year’s mistake of rewarding Manziel with something he hadn’t earned. Now, he’s earned it.

When asked afterward what he would do when McCown comes back, Pettine said: “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. I’m not going to speak on that one.” Give Manziel credit. He's given his coach something to think about.

On Sunday, Manziel looked like a player who had hit rock-bottom, had reached out for the help he needed to build himself back up again, and done all the right things, on and off the field. Playing a grown-up game of quarterback was the last piece of the puzzle. The glimpses he showed against the Jets — an early touchdown pass — were fitted into his overall game.

Ironically, Manziel looked a lot like a rookie — that is, like Titans rookie Marcus Mariota. A sensation in his debut last week, Mariota was tested severely in his second and was far from perfect, but he kept his poise.

Manziel did, too, especially when he threw a late touchdown pass, also to Benjamin, to seal the win and end a Mariota-led comeback.

Speaking of Benjamin … you have to wonder if Josh Gordon was watching somewhere, while serving his year-long suspension, thinking, “That could be me.’’ “That” meaning not Benjamin, but Manziel, who saw the risk he posed to his own career and made the changes he needed to.

By winning the duel against Mariota, the anti-Johnny Football, Manziel became the anti-Johnny Football.

At least one has to hope he has. But Manziel has had all of training camp, all of the time since leaving a rehab center last April, to show the Browns he’s a better man. Telling them wasn’t going to be enough.

Now that he has shown them, the Browns can show him the full-time starting job.